A Turn for the Worse

The news coming from Florida was generally favorable for the first five days after I returned. Then yesterday I got two phone calls from Leive that told me my mother is suffering from chest pains, and they’re giving her nitro glycerin for that. It didn’t work, so tonight they’re going to give her morphine. There’s a consensus among my folks that time is running out for my mother, so I didn’t sleep well last night, thinking and praying for her. Last night she even stopped breathing once, but one of the caregivers revived her right away. Evidently at this stage, she’d rather be reunited with her parents than wait to see the kids we’re going to adopt from the Philippines. We may be going back to Florida sooner than I’d like.

Leive’s return home was delayed two hours, by bad traffic and bad weather at the Orlando airport. When I got to the Lexington airport, the airport’s computer screens said that her flight was on schedule, but then Leive called to let me know she was still on the runway in Orlando. So I went home, and came back to the airport two hours later. This time she was there, and dead tired because of the wait. She was also hungry, because in Orlando International Airport they charged her $10 for a tuna sandwich, a bag of chips and some water. I hope the sandwich was a footlong, otherwise she was ripped off. Knowing how expensive airport refreshments are, the last time I was in OIA, I felt I was doing good when I got a decent cup of coffee for less than $2. And foodwise, I did better in Chicago’s O’Hare Airport two years ago, when I paid $9 for a plate of Chinese fast food. Thus, we stopped at Chipotle to get her a burrito on the way home.

As expected, Leive has been sleeping since then, and boy, what a transformation her arrival had on Brin-Brin! The parrot who is normally furious when he’s alone in the house with me calmed down immediately when he saw his “pet human” arrive. I guess he’s content now that Leive is back, because he only made a sound when a bottle of shampoo fell down upstairs, and when I picked up his (Leive’s) laptop.